After many years of collaboration between Paul Reed Smith and seven-time Grammy winner John Mayer, the traditional Maryland company presents the PRS John Mayer Silver Sky. Based on the characteristic features of early sixties instruments, the electric guitar is a successful homage to the irrepressible vintage sound of the mid-sixties and combines the classic specifications of the era with Paul's future-oriented guitar design.
John Mayers Silver Sky embodies the ergonomic feeling of traditional double cutaway guitars and brings the timeless design to today's stages. Besides classic features like the top-load construction and contours for arm and chest, Paul Reed Smith gave the lower cutaway the typical'scoop', from which especially the playing in the highest positions of the fingerboard benefits noticeably.
The construction of the PRS Silver Sky follows the classic bolt-on design. The quadruple maple neck, bolted to a specially designed Silver Sky neckplate, features a rosewood fingerboard including classic small bird inlays for fret marking. After the first few fingerings, a spontaneously characteristic vintage feeling emerges, not least thanks to John's painstakingly recreated neck profile of his classic 63/64 instruments and an extremely low fretboard radius of 7.25".
Powerful, yet full of character and not too harsh, the single coils designed especially for Johns Silver Sky go to work. Full, round and warm sounds are the profession of the single coils, without denying the characteristic sound of the single coils. The pickup circuits, which can be selected via the 5-way blade switch, awaken the entire range of the set, with the intermediate positions 2 and 4 in particular testify to the good balance between the pickups.
Also the hardware equipment of the PRS Silver Sky remains basically classic, but not completely without fresh cell therapy. First, Paul Reed Smith's Jack Plate design was adapted and rounded to allow instrument cables to be plugged in and out easily. The vintage tremolo is held by six screws resting on knife edges and has four steel springs ex works, whereby the baseplate rests on the body. This not only provides more reliable tunings and double stops, but also a stronger signal and improved sustain.
I've always been a fan of PRS gear and owned a number of SEs and and S2, but this just takes it to another level. I get that other reviewers have had issues with the tuning pegs/control knobs, etc, but the quality isn't that bad.
I wasn't sure I was going to get on with the neck radius, but it's extremely comfortable and doesn't take too long to get used to.
Best guitar i’ve owned and so very good to look at with many changing colours throughout owing to the stunning flip flop paint job .
Volume/ knobs and pickup-switch feels cheap. Finish on the neck is pretty sticky but not too much but the neck profile is unbelievable good!
It keeps tune well, great sustain and the tone is something else.